Build Your House Around My Body - Violet Kupersmith

A mesmerising, captivating, and confounding debut.

Build Your House Around My Body is structured around the disappearance of 22-year-old Winnie, a Vietnamese American who arrives in Saigon in 2010 to teach English and ostensibly reconnect with her heritage. Neither white nor Asian enough to feel comfortable with either designation, Winnie’s biracial identity renders her a perpetual outsider burdened by microaggressions and self-loathing. Interwoven with Winnie’s story are spooky vignettes taking place in the days and decades before and after her vanishing - the reader gradually gleans connections between these stories in ingenious or sometimes convoluted ways. Hugely imaginative, Kupersmith has definitely established herself as an author to watch!